After watching the above gif animation, what do you immediately think of? Terrorism? Elevator? You are close to second. It just happens to be one of the few that my hometown of Sheffield in the UK is known for. Stainless steel exterior and Arctic Monkeys (greatest band of all time), there’s another little-recognized oddity in America: the Paternoster elevator.
Paternoster elevators work like elevators that move people up and down a tall building using boxes or carriages. But unlike an elevator, the Paternoster is made up of the rotation of many smaller train cars that go through every floor of the building without stopping. You just jump in and out. Sounds crazy.
No need to press the button and wait for the door to open on your floor. No, the paternoster is always fully open, slowly moving through the building. Slow enough that jumping in and out of the carriage on the go isn’t as intimidating as it seems.
One of the last surviving Paternoster elevators is located in Sheffield, inside the University’s Art Tower, a 20-story building built each brick in the 1960s. It included 38 cars to move people up and down different floors.
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When each car reaches the top of the tower, they roll over the lift’s mechanism to start their downward descent. It all makes perfect meaning when you see it in action.
It may sound like Science Fiction now or potentially terrifying, but it’s a pretty ingenious way to navigate through a tall building. There’s also a great video by Tom Scott explaining how the lift works and the safety mechanisms to make sure you don’t lose an arm. And interestingly, it shows you what happens when cars roll over the top. It’s a fun little watch and shows you some of the weirdly outdated technology we’ve been working on in the UK over the past few decades.
